Housekeeping Miscellany

Thousands of people are still without power here in my borough, Queens. ConEd is really screwing my neighbors over: thankfully I'm one of the lucky ones, and our apartment hasn't had any real power problems.




Above is a video of an instance of police brutality that Andy Rector writes about. I haven't found the right words to adorn this kind of footage; Andy does well enough to contextualize it.

Below are links of some blogs that are relatively recent obsessions/discoveries.

Different Maps - wow. Backpedal a bit to the transcriptions of the Žižek talks.
The Measures Taken & Sit Down Man, You're a Bloody Tragedy - fascinating: constructivism, Soviet movie posters, British architecture, album art, etc. all tied into a meaningful web.
Subject Barred (or $) - Different Maps has linked to it, I haven't done more than give a cursory look to the archives on this one yet, but ...

Recent viewing (within the last few weeks) that I haven't mentioned here already has included video revisitations of Howard Hawks' Ball of Fire (I like it but still prefer His Girl Friday) and Makavejev's WR--Mysteries of the Organism (recommending it to Darren increased that itch). I actually went to a new American commercial release--A Prairie Home Companion, which I liked. But I've never listened to Keillor's radio show, and who knows what references or nuances (or inanities?) I may have missed. Peter Emanuel Goldman's Echoes of Silence ('65) is a fantastic Beat-ish 'silent' film about loneliness, socializing, and sexual frustration in '60s New York City. Nicole Brenez is a fan of Goldman's work, and I can see why. (Let's get a full retrospective here, I don't think he made that many films!)

I have anywhere from two to five drafts of essays sitting around (depending on whether or not I want to merge some topics), and hope to get them into shape soon enough. I also have to get back to cracking the whip on the graduate school application checklist ...